I may have started my blog on a slow (as well as low) note, but things started picking up a bit fast lately. I have been a little lazy these days at blogging! Though busy with work, I want to keep sharing the topics which keep striking and publish it frequently. So this write up is about one such important area in the landscape of film-making, it’s all about the magic and power of the ‘Trailers’, popularly known as ‘Promotional Trailer’ (since it’s a part of promotional activity).

Do they trail ?

We know them as trailers, but they don’t trail anything; Rather the trailer itself makes one to trail about the movie. It consists of a series of selected shots from the film. The purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film. So usually the shot for the promotional video would be edited randomly and make it interesting to the viewer and attract him.

How did it all start?

I always love to know such things about everything. Getting back to times, the documentary “Coming Attractions” dates the very first trailer to a 1912 Edison serial entitled “What Happened to Mary?” and a short promotional film for the musical “The Pleasure Seekers”, was the first trailer shown in a U.S. film theater in November 1913.

The power of trailer!

Marketing a movie isn’t hard these days. Often they are showcased on various platforms like TV, Theaters and Internet. Today the landscape is very wide and the promotional activity can be carried out in many, many ways. But especially when it comes to making a trailer, the art of the movie trailer is one that is rarely appreciated. Someone must edit an entire movie’s general themes, imagery, and mood into 2 minutes or less. If you show people too much of what the movie is about, people will whine, that they have been spoiled the entire movie. Give people too little, and they’ll have no idea what the f*** to expect and they naturally promote it by their own means of communication. Trust me, this works!

But in the present scenario, there are lot of trailers or as they announce, the new trend called as the Official theatrical trailer, which gets screened along with the released film. It really works! It reaches the people and keeps reminding them, even when they watch it on TV or Internet. This is one of the area our KFI (Kannada Film Industry) needs to focus, our films badly need healthy promotions. These trailers, like the films themselves, are great fun!

Few trailers which I would like to mention..

I personally feel, “the elements of cinema and advertising blend expertly and the outcome is the best trailer work of art in their own right!”

Movie trailers are increasingly becoming important and they play a very crucial role. To me, the best trailers are not only the ones that generally sum up the movie being advertised, but also the ones that work as their own stand-alone works of art, the ones that transcend the expected notion of being just a mere advertisement, and being a great piece of entertainment on its own.

Let me start with this classic piece, Alien (1979) Directed by Ridley Scott, the trailer of this movie still gets me to the edge of the seat and it creates that vacuum for the audience as well. Alien’s trailer is calculatingly constructed and dexterously executed. The sound design, the quick cuts towards a crescendo, makes the trailer more extraordinary. Alien is one of the top films in the thriller/suspense genre, but it’s one of the best ever made trailer.

Some of the film trailers that mind boggled me!

(Am pretty sure you people have your own favorite trailers, and if you do, give the link or title in the comments section. And if you disagree or agree with anything on this list, that’s another great excuse to leave a comment.)

The trailers made by some of the biggies like Marvel comics, Paramount Pictures, New line Cinema, Pixar studios etc,. and by Filmmakers Farhan Akhtar, Ram gopal Verma, Gautham Menon, Mani ratnam, Rajkumar Hirani, undoubtedly have impressed me and been carried away most of the times by those pieces. When it comes to Malayalam films, they come out with the best trailers, best posters. That’s the way they prioritize when it comes to promotion of their films. What makes them so special or impressive? It’s the passion towards the art and the sheer brilliance in the way they craft the miniature version of their films, which are called as ‘Trailers’. They keep you connected, make you wait for them and you rush into the theaters as soon as they are released.

Trailer’s are awarded too!

‘The Golden Trailer‘ Awards is an annual awards show that honors achievements in motion picture marketing, including film trailers, posters and television advertisements. Recently, The Dark Knight Rises won the best trailer ’12 award and even the best poster design ’12 also.

By the way, 2 years ago, started with a short film titled ‘U-turn‘, for which I was very much clear and focused about a trailer for it. Here it is.

Well, I have always loved the trailers and the beauty of it. So if you know and love the film (like I do), it’s easy to see that, trailer is a cleverly veiled short-film version of the full feature giving away everything without giving away anything!

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6 thoughts on “2 minutes does it all!”

people who watch the trailer just for the sake of watching or watch it without any idea.. will have an idea as to why trailers are made and Wat are the importance of it and will start looking at the trailers in the different angle. Amazing blog.. go to know a lot of things.

What u have said is absolutely true.. trailers are the first invitation about a film an audience gets…as u have said its a hard task to put in all the elements of the movie in 2 mins…some are very good at it..also there are many channels just to air the trailers…a new kind of revolution is started by RGV recently where he gave out starting 7 mins of his movie “The Attacks of 26/11” which kind of creates an interest for the viewers.. its a very brave thing to do.. Suri a well known kannada director shot the trailer of ANNA BOND to create a hype around his movie (even before the movie was shoot started) to a certain extent he was able to achieve it…in other languages its very common that a trailer is launched a month or two prior to the films release.. which gives the movie time to get noticed.. but its not the same in kannada films..the practice of of trailers should grow more in kannada films..